Salvadoran Woman Released After Over Seven Years in Prison for Abortion Conviction
A Salvadoran lady was released from jail after serving more than seven years for an abortion-related conviction. First Post reported that Lilian, a 28-year-old woman, received a 30-year jail term in 2015.
She had a daughter in 2015 in a public hospital, but the infant passed away there three days after delivery due to complications.
El Salvador has one of the most stringent anti-abortion laws in the world, which completely bans the procedure.The prosecution claimed that Lilian neglected her unborn child while she was pregnant, leading to charges of aggravated murder and carelessness.
Lilian, who has a daughter who is now ten years old, has always denied any wrongdoing and said that she had no intention of terminating her pregnancy.
"In the name of all my companions, I ask you to stop accusing and prosecuting other innocent women like me," she said in a news conference on Wednesday. "It was a very hard trauma to live through and I don't wish it on anyone."
The campaign organisations who stood by Lilian throughout her ordeal said that she was released in December, but the news has only now been made public. The court allegedly decided to let Lilian go since she was in a particularly vulnerable state after giving birth in the hospital.
In 1998, El Salvador passed a law outlawing the practice of abortion entirely. There are no exceptions for rape or situations when the mother's health is in danger during the pregnancy.
Anyone convicted of illegally terminating a pregnancy faces a jail sentence of two to eight years. But the accusation is sometimes upgraded to aggravated murder, which carries a 30-year minimum term.
Reports say that dozens of women were falsely imprisoned in El Salvador of having abortions. Many formerly incarcerated women have been granted their freedom in recent years as a result of advocacy efforts by civil rights organisations. Some, however, are still serving sentences that span decades.
At Wednesday's press conference, Mariana Moisa, a member of the civil rights organisation Nos Faltan Las 17 (We Miss The 17), said, "We insist that we are asking for justice, so women have access to our sexual and reproductive rights."
Next month, President Nayib Bukele, who is a heavy favourite to be re-elected, has stated his intention to make hospitals safer places to give birth.
His stance on El Salvador's abortion legislation remains unchanged, nevertheless, as he has made clear.
The majority of the country's citizens are devout Christians, who believe that human life starts at conception and desire the utmost protection for it.